


Macaw Call-Out

by MetellaStella



Category: Dolittle (2020)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22433470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetellaStella/pseuds/MetellaStella
Summary: “You’re such a hypocrite, Polly,” Dr. Dolittle said sharply to the Macaw parrot.“Why do you say that?” she asked, taken aback.She didn’t fluff her feathers out yet, he supposed saving her outrage for after she had heard his argument.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	Macaw Call-Out

Her blue plumage didn’t quite stand out against the night sky. The tiny white stripes on her face gave the impression of shooting stars against the real ones. 

All the animals, even the normally nocturnal ones, had turned in. The pitching and rolling of the ship was enough to exhaust anyone from the extra corrections for balance. He, however, hadn’t been able to sleep for several days. She kept him company occasionally. She physiologically needed four hours more sleep than he did, so it was doubly as considerate to support him. Or perhaps 25% more, doing the math, he reflected. 

“Polynesia,” he used her long, full name, but he would keep it short, “You’ve gone on and on about how I should make room in my life for ones ‘of my species’ but nearly our entire merry little band is a single representative of each of their respective kinds.”   
  
He paused.   
  
“Where is your admonition for Yoshi to go visit polar bears at the London zoo?”   
  
“Polar bears only get together to mate,” she defended.   
  
“Ok. What about concern for Chee-chee, who is just as social as my own Homo?”   
  
She didn’t come up with a response.    
  
“Ducks are rarely seen on their own,” he pressed on, “Yet I’ve never heard you say to Dab Dab,  **_your fellow bird_ ** ,  _ mind you, _ ‘hey why don’t you try migrating and you can come back during the off season?’” 

She clicked her beak in agitation.   
  
“I’ve even had humans in the past tell me that it was inconsiderate to dogs not to have a dog companion,” he said morosely. “I brushed it off then, but recently … other shortcomings in my … and even before you picked at me about it … but now … the more you …” he swallowed, complete sentences falling through his fingers like sand in his sleep-deprived state, “the more I brood on it.” 

“You . . . you think . . .” she said quietly, quieter than perhaps a human could even manage with the same quality of sound with her tiny syrinx, the additional windpipe structure that served as an extra voicebox, “you think you’re not taking care of us properly?”

  
“Of course I’m not,” he said bitterly.    
  
Absurd that even needed to be spelled out, in his opinion. 

She gave a sighing sound, which he knew was an audio effect she had picked up from mammals, not a way birds, with their reverse-breathing through all the additional air sacs around their lungs, normally managed their air.    
  
Now for her rebuttal.    



End file.
